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Originally Posted by tyke
I didn't miss that.
The councils do not have the power to give the residents of Engalnd a bus pass to travel the country, abolish top up fees, give pensioners free residential care or home help and the list goes on.
Councils are now and only ever will be concerned with local issues, such as planning and christmas lighting
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Firstly, a lot of that **** is stuff a government simply shouldn't be doing. Bus passes are for bus companies to sell. Top up fees should be abolished - by privatizing universities and letting them charge what the hell they please. You want to fund pensioners getting residential care? Set up a charity. Don't dip your hand INTO phpbb_my wallet!
Second, as I also mentioned above, a lot of the Westminster stuff could quite plausibly be devolved and pushed down to county-council level in the UK (and let Scotland and Wales do their own thing).
Third, an English parliament would be pretty much as remote as the Westminster one. England is large, and very nearly as politically and economically diverse internally as it is compared as a whole to Scotland or Wales. You can't expect an English parliament to be much more regionally sensitive than a British parliament.
Finally, there are better fixes to the "West Lothian question". Like eg: the simple fix of changing the constitution so Scottish and Welsh MPs may not participate in Westminster votes covering topics devolved regionally.